


This Tale

by miera



Series: Rescue Operation [3]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-28
Updated: 2010-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-06 19:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malcolm reflects on poetry, Porthos and Hoshi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Tale

**Author's Note:**

> The poetry is from _The Changing Light at Sandover_ by James Merrill.

Malcolm entered the hydroponics bay and nodded somewhat sheepishly at the crewman who was tending the plants. The man's response was a brief nod and he proceeded to ignore the Armory officer as Malcolm headed towards the miniature herb garden near the wall.

Malcolm considered himself to be a realist. He had harbored no illusions when he joined Starfleet that the accommodations would be deluxe. Most of the time he didn't even think much about the aesthetics of the ship. Every once in a while, though, the gray metal dullness began to irritate him.

In those moments, he sought refuge in the hydroponics bay. It wasn't exactly a beach or a garden with sunshine and blue skies, but the living green of the plants and the smells were the closest to nature Enterprise afforded.

He settled himself on a bench, closing his eyes briefly and sorting out the myriad smells coming from the shelves around him. He could see mint growing on the bottom rung next to him and surreptitiously tucked a leaf into his pocket.

Leaning back against the wall, he opened the book he had brought and began to read.

> "She cropped me a twig of her crown to eat   
> And said 'Go cheer them, tell them a tale'   
> Shall I? _We're listening._ So many. Well:
> 
> A young racer yearned to mate   
> With a fair female he could not coax.   
> He galloped! Leapt over alarming gullies!   
> Raced round the course ahead of all!   
> But she did not look. At last he cried:   
> Why is this? I am here! &amp; he   
> Nudged her! He took a nip of her hair!   
> She leapt startled then softly said:   
> I am blind. He replied: Then you   
> Will need me near. This tale taught us   
> Not to be vain in love, but true."

Malcolm was engrossed in the poem and hadn't noticed the swoosh of the door opening as the crewman left. A few minutes later, however, he became very aware of a clicking sound. He looked up just in time to see Porthos trotting towards him, tail waving eagerly.

"Porthos? What on earth are you doing in here?"

The beagle stretched up, planting his front paws on Malcolm's leg. Malcolm had never been an animal lover, but he had developed an affection for the little dog ever since rescuing him from a crooked businessman who had intended to add Porthos to his private menagerie.

Malcolm absently scratched the dog behind the ears as he had seen Captain Archer do. His mind went back to that rescue operation. Porthos had been stashed in a room above a seedy nightclub and Malcolm had gone there undercover to retrieve him, accompanied by Hoshi. After putting on quite a show on the dance floor, they had succeeded in sneaking upstairs and liberating Porthos. Hoshi had wrapped the dog up in her red silk shawl to smuggle him back out of the club.

They had kissed for the first time that night, as Malcolm remembered all too vividly, in the stairwell in the back of the club. And later, for the second time, but in the privacy of Hoshi's quarters, after their safe return to the ship.

He had felt more during those two kisses than he had in some of his past relationships. In their entirety.

Malcolm started, causing Porthos to shy away and let out an inquisitive bark. Several months had passed and the memory of those two kisses continued to haunt Malcolm. He was worried that he thought of it as their "first" kiss. Such terminology implied that he expected there to be more than that, when none of them should ever have happened. To this day, he still wasn't sure what he had been thinking when he lured Hoshi into her quarters and kissed her again.

That was a lie. He knew exactly what he had been thinking. He was just ashamed of giving in to his impulses. Especially with a junior colleague and friend he respected as much as Hoshi.

"Then you will need me near." He thought over the tale in the poem. His mind easily recalled a hundred images of Hoshi, in target practice sessions with him, or laughing over dinner. The way her face seemed to almost go blank when she was working on a translation in her head, her expression signaling that she was so deep in her own mind she had removed herself from everything else. He wondered idly how that kind of concentration would play out under other circumstances.

Porthos came back, his wet nose nudging Malcolm out of his fantasies. He looked down at the little dog somewhat sadly. "'This tale taught us not to be vain in love but true.' There's a message for me in that, don't you think?"

The beagle cocked his head to one side. Malcolm laughed at himself. "Now I'm discussing my inner psyche with a dog. I must be more stressed than I thought." He shut off all thoughts that connected Hoshi, the inner workings of the mind, and the word love. Book tucked under his arm, he picked the dog up. "I'm certain you've escaped from someone who is searching for you, so let's get you back."

He came to the door just as it opened, to find the object of his repressed thoughts standing before him.

"Porthos!" Hoshi exclaimed, spotting the dog in Malcolm's arms. She looked up at Malcolm. "How did he get in here?"

Malcolm shrugged. "Someone left a few minutes ago. He must have snuck in when the door was open."

Hoshi held out her arms, and Malcolm carefully deposited the wriggling body into her embrace, doing his best to not allow his fingers to brush against her any more than necessary. When Porthos was safely in her arms, Malcolm grinned. "We really need to stop meeting like this," he joked.

Hoshi began to turn red and he felt a blush begin to rise in tandem with hers.

Porthos chose that moment to start trying to lick Hoshi's face and she glared down at him. "Bad dog. Running away after I gave you half my dinner! Don't think you can sweet talk your way out of this." She looked at Malcolm again. "Thanks."

"It was nothing, really."

"I'm taking him back to the Captain before he can run away again. Good night."

Hoshi left, Porthos peeking over her shoulder at Malcolm as the door shut. Malcolm sighed and headed back to his seat. He attempted to distract himself with the more philosophical passages from the book, but he ended up just rereading the "tale" until he had it committed to memory.


End file.
